Open Source Paint.NET Alternatives for Mac

Paint.NET is not available for Mac but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on macOS with similar functionality. The best open source Mac alternative is Pinta. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Paint.NET and 13 are open source and available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source Mac alternatives to Paint.NET are Krita, GIMP, Sly and MyPaint.

filter to find the best alternatives

Paint.NET alternatives are mainly Image Editors, but if you're looking for Photo Editors or Digital Painting Tools you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux, Android, Mac, iPad, Online, iPhone and Android Tablet. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Paint.NET.
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Alternatives list

  1. Pinta icon

    Pinta

     277 likes

    Pinta is a image editing, drawing and painting application with a simple yet powerful interface. Pinta has a wide range of drawing tools, including: freehand, rectangles, circles and lines. It also has over 35 effects to apply to your images, and also has the ability to create...

    99 Pinta alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • Mono
    • Snapcraft
    Pinta 3.0
     
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    21
    Comments about Pinta as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    12

    This functions in almost identical ways to Paint.NET, more so than any other program listed on here.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    6

    It gives you a good taste of Paint.NET, but it's so broken and painful to work with that it just isn't worth using; e.g. the text function doesn't work.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    harrisben
    Positive
    0

    Much more functionality and cleaner UI.

    3 of 21 comments
    Pinta icon
    Pinta icon
    • Pinta is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
    • Pinta is Privacy focusedPaint.NET is not according to our users
  2. Krita icon

    Krita

     1414 likes

    Free, open-source painting software designed by artists for artists. Offers customizable UI, 9 brush engines, color management, tablet support, non-destructive editing, and privacy features. Portable and available on major platforms, supporting seamless texture creation.

    142 Krita alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android Tablet
    • KDE Plasma
    • Epic Games Store
    • PortableApps.com
    • Steam
    • F-Droid
    Main Window
     
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    16
    Comments about Krita as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Top Positive Comment
    beng tang
    0

    As an alternative to Paint.NET for Linux, Krita is not exactly the same, but it has most of the same functionality and it can resize (Image > Scale Image to New Size) images using a variety of resampling filters including Lanczos3, which makes it better than GIMP for resizing photos.

    Top Negative Comment
    Guest
    16

    Very good, but not focused to photo editing.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    FiTekno
    0

    I was looking for a quick tool to combine multiple screenshots, for example. This succeeds with that but not as fast as with Paint.net. Good thing this is localized to many languages.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 16 comments
    Krita icon
    Krita icon
    • Krita is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
    • Krita is Customizable and Privacy focusedPaint.NET is not according to our users
  4. GIMP icon

    GIMP

     4732 likes

    GIMP delivers powerful functionalities for photo retouching, image composition, and format conversion. As a versatile tool, it serves as both a simple paint program and a high-end retouching suite, and offers batch processing for mass image tasks in an accessible open-source platform.

    190 GIMP alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    • Flatpak
    • AmigaOS
    yes
     
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    41
    Comments about GIMP as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    1

    free, open-source, cross-platform

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Top Negative Comment
    zlelmefs
    7

    The #1 perk of paint.net is how lightweight and fast it is, it's intended as a competitor to Paint. GIMP is the complete opposite- it's a big, slow monster designed to compete with photoshop.

    Guest
    Negative
    0

    It's slow and has a lot of stuff you have to learn while paint.net is easy to use and lightweight.

    3 of 41 comments
    GIMP icon
    GIMP icon
    • GIMP is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
    • GIMP is Customizable and Privacy focusedPaint.NET is not according to our users
  5. Sly icon

    Sly

     51 likes

    Sly is a user-friendly, offline image editor requiring no expertise; adjust brightness, contrast, apply effects, and export in JPEG or PNG formats with control over metadata.

    36 Sly alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Android
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Online
    Sly screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Sly as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Lunae
    Negative
    0

    Sly is too simplistic. It is merely a tool to crop and apply filters, and doesn't have any tools like area selection, cut copy paste, fill, brush/pencil, text, etc.

    Sly icon
    Sly icon
    • Sly is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
    • Sly is Privacy focusedPaint.NET is not according to our users
  6. MyPaint icon

    MyPaint

     387 likes

    MyPaint is a fast, distraction-free, and easy painting tool for digital artists. It supports graphics tablets made by Wacom, and many similar devices.

    128 MyPaint alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • PortableApps.com
    MyPaint screenshot 1
     
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    2
    Comments about MyPaint as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    superluminar
    Negative
    5

    MyPaint is a digital painting/drawing program, Paint.NET is a simple image editor.

    Guest
    Negative
    2

    MyPaint looks a lot like Photoshop. Paint.NET is so popular because of the simplicity. Photoshop is a beautiful program with a lot of options. Paint.NET is a simple "paint" program that allows you to go as you like, but keep it simple at the beginning. MyPaint is like a Photoshop lite.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    MyPaint icon
    MyPaint icon
    • MyPaint is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
  7. LazPaint icon

    LazPaint

     45 likes

    Raster & vector graphic editor with many tools and filters, written in Lazarus. Portable, 32bit & 64bit versions, ORA format & 16384x16384 image support. In app 3D import & rendering.

    43 LazPaint alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • PortableApps.com
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    Main UI
     
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    6
    Comments about LazPaint as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    Top Positive Comment
    sourloti
    3

    Is able to open and edit .pdn files! Especially handy if you're on Linux and aren't able/don't want to use paint.net.

    beng tang
    Positive
    0

    LazPaint comes close to Paint.NET in terms of ease of use and features. Unlike GIMP, LazPaint has good resampling / resizing algorithms including Lanczos. Unlike Krita, it's selection tool does not select outside the image and it can print images. Amongst the Linux image editors I have tried, it is so far the best alternative to Paint.NET.

    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Lightweight and available in Debian 11

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    3 of 6 comments
    LazPaint icon
    LazPaint icon
    • LazPaint is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
  10. Pixelitor icon

    Pixelitor

     28 likes

    Pixelitor is an open source image editor with an intuitive interface and with a special emphasis on non-destructive editing.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Pixelitor screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Pixelitor as an Alternative to Paint.NET
    nlacaria
    Positive
    0

    not a similar GUI, but similar speed and basic functionality. closest "base" program to Paint.Net on Linux. Paint.Net is much more expandable with extensions. But Pixelitor is much more accurate in things like cropping than Pinta

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Pixelitor icon
    Pixelitor icon
    • Pixelitor is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
  11. showFoto icon

    showFoto

     14 likes

    You can use it to view your photographs and improve them. Showfoto is the standalone image editor of the digiKam project.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • KDE
    showFoto screenshot 1
     
  12. Seashore icon

    Seashore

     69 likes

    Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It is based around the GIMPs technology and uses the same native file format.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Seashore screenshot 1
     
  13. Gimel Studio icon

    Gimel Studio

     3 likes

    Gimel Studio is a non-destructive, 2D image editor focused on simplicity, speed, elegance and usability.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    v0.6.0 alpha pre-release 1
     
  14. CinePaint icon

    CinePaint

     15 likes

    CinePaint is a deep paint application that edits EXR, DPX, 16-bit TIFF, JPEG, PNG and many other types of image files. CinePaint is available as a native application for Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
12 of 13 Paint.NET alternatives